62 NOTES ON THE 



which consequently are whiter; wings blaclrish; lesser and 

 middle coverts sprinkled with grayish; speculum white, edged 

 behind with greenish-black, which is also the color of the ter- 

 tials; white of speculum crosses the middle of the secondaries; 

 iris yellow. 



Length, 36.50; wing, 8; tarsus, 1.35; commissure 2. 



Habitat, North America generally. 



These Ducks are frequently more numerous than any other 

 species in the fall, not excepting the Buffle-heads. They re- 

 tire southward about as much in advance of the Blue -bills as 

 they arrive later in spring. 



AYTHYA COLLARIS (Donovan). (150.) 



RING-NECKED DUCK. 



In the spring of 1861, and again in 1867, this species seemed 

 to overshadow every other in numbers, and there have been few 

 years in which it has not had a fairly common representation. 

 They arrive about the same time in spring as do the Greater 

 Scaups, but seek the lakes and ponds rather than the streams. 

 Their movements on the wing are quite characteristic, and 

 enable those familiar with the flight of different species of 

 ducks, to single them out very readily. In one respect they 

 remind us of the Golden- eyes. On rising from the water, 

 their flight, always vigorous, is attended with a whisting 

 sound, so distinct as to assure their identity even while yet 

 invisible to the eye, and when visible, the flocks are easily 

 determined by their loose, scattered mode of arrangement. 

 They are more suspicious, and vigilant than some other mem- 

 bers of the genus, and give the gun a wide birth after discov- 

 ering that it is loaded. They are good divers, and feed upon 

 minnows, crayfish, tadpoles, aquatic roots, insects, and grains 

 or seeds, according to their prevalence at the season. The 

 larger part of them move northward before the first of May, 

 but some remain here to breed, their nests having been occa- 

 sionally found as far towards the southern border of the State 

 as Heron lake in Jackson county, in Hennepin and Becker coun- 

 ties, and in the vicinity of Big Stone lake, thus indicating a wide 

 distribution. As early as the summer of 1863, reports reached 

 me of their being seen during the breeding season along the 

 Minnesota river, and again in 1869, a farmer residing near 

 Rice lake in Anoka county, who claimed to know most of the 

 prominent species of game ducks, insisted that the Ring necks 

 stayed around the lake all summer, as he had flushed one of 

 them several times in a marsh bordering it. In driving back and 



